Enhance Math Talk to Skyrocket Learning

using math talk with 2nd graders

Math talk is a significant useful strategy that you can integrate tomorrow to improve your instruction. I bet you are already doing some form of math talk, I hope these tips can help you to take it up a notch!

I noticed that facilitating math talk with my second graders has really enhanced their use of vocabulary, expanded their critical thinking, promoted their comfort with sharing answers, and improved their ability to explain their thinking (orally and written).

What is Malk Talk?

The purpose of math talk is to guide your students in meaningful discussions about their thinking process while solving mathematic problems.

math talk

The picture above was the result of one of my math talk discussions with my second graders. We always start our math block with a warm up problem. The problem above asked how you can show 100 besides the place value blocks shown. After students had time to solve this on their own, the magical math talk began! I guided students to share their solutions while challenging them to explain their thinking process and use appropriate math vocabulary while doing so!

While the students are explaining, I always write down their thinking and solution to recognize/ celebrate their answer and to help other students notice all the possible ways to solve a problem. I believe that writing their name encourages pride and confidence in their math solving abilities.

I also encourage students to relate their thinking to each others. We talk a lot about sentence frames such as “I used a similar strategy to ______” Math talk also promotes QUESTIONS!! Students should ask each other why or how they implemented their thinking. This is an opportunity to learn from each other! We celebrate asking questions!!

Ways to Facilitate Math Talk

Making critical thinking and reasoning discussions a regular thing in your classroom takes practice. It is also important to set the stage that mistakes are OK!!! They are something that can help to lead our discussion and help us learn from each other!

  • post sentence frames and question starters in your math center to promote math discussion (link to bulletin board signs)
  • start off with only a few students sharing and build discussion off of that
  • student can write down their thinking and how they solved before math talk begins to prepare them for the interactive discussion *this also helps to practice for the “explain” portion of their test*
  • have students practice with a partner or small group
  • post vocabulary students should be using in their explanation

I always practice math talk in my small group guided math station. Once students start to get the rhythm of how to share, they LOVE it! Everyone wants to show their thinking and talk to their peers about what they did to solve the problem.

Leading questions/ statements for the teacher to use to further discussions:

  • Tell me more.
  • What did you do next?
  • Why did you do that?
  • Can you prove your answer?
  • Draw us a picture.
  • What was your first step?
  • What in the math problem told you to do that?
  • How did you get to that number?

Using math talk really cultivates an environment where students want to learn from each other and participate in discussions. I see in my math centers that students are applying this type of discussion as they play math games together! It is amazing how natural this becomes for them!

I hope that these tips help you to get started facilitating math talk in your classroom. It is such simple shifts in how you respond to students and lead the discussion but it has monumental impacts! Let me know how it goes, I would love to hear!

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